Before I met the guys, I wasn’t sure about the ridiculous (though hilarious) blurb in all their media releases. Who writes this crap!? Turns out, if you boil it all down, you’re left with a pure and concentrated sample of The Presets’ sense of humour. And these dudes are damn non-chalant type of guys, at least when it comes to my comfort stuck in front of them asking dumb questions.

We’re sitting at a bustling, cute and simple Italian cafe in Crow’s Nest. They’re in a bit of a huff – they’ve been carting gear all over Sydney and they’re taking a new phone interview between each breath. They’ve also got to get their set sorted before they start another national tour, and they’ve not totally enthusiastically sacrificed a more relaxing lunch break to have a chat with me on a surprisingly warm Sydney afternoon.

Waitress: “Macchiatos?”
Jules: “Yep.”

The waitress slips coffees in front of Jules and Kim.

W: “Thank you.”
Kim: “This is the secret to being a Sydney-sider mate; order yourself a macchiato, and you say “baby” after everything.”
Me: “Baby?”
Kim: “Yeah baby.”

The waitress plonks a flat white on the table.

M: “Thanks.”
W: “Thank you.”
K: “You didn’t say baby.”
M: “Oh.”
J: “She knows you’re from Brisbane by the way.”
M: “Already?”
J: “Yeah.”

They rattle their teaspoons in their tiny macchiato glasses, oohing and aahing.

J: “This guy really knows how to make a macchiato. It’s a sight for sore eyes.”
M: “Baby,” I’m amused, “but only to the girls?”
K: “Nah mate. Nah baby. Everyone’s a candidate. If you really want to be a Sydney-sider, especially to the boys… Hehehe boys mate.”

They’re both hidden behind dark, oversized 80s sunnies. And usual Preset’s attire. Jules has a worn black shirt, black jeans and sneakers, Kim struts to the counter in an oversized 80s sports jacket – one of those really floppy, poor-fitting ones hanging off his shoulders- and orders lunch.

I don’t want to make these guys out to seem really cool because it’ll go straight to their heads. But the fact is, they’re not. They’re annoying instrumental graduates from the Conservatorium. I drilled them, because instrumental music students (as opposed to production orientated ones) are obsessed with their tool to the point that they forget about real life. Jules and Kim reckoned they LOVED uni and its classical focus. So are these guys freaks from music school?

J: “They’re a different type of people. They are different, but every now and then, like, I mean, we are the same; kinda obsessive but we kind of have a bit more of an idea of what’s going on in the world. Most of these people kinda are a bit crazy, locked away for like hours on end and battle with their instrument. And sort of it’s like discipline, like a state of massachistic need, you know, they don’t feel good unless they go and do it you know what I mean? It’s almost a sickness. But it’s a good thing if you can, like, have that talent and control it.”
K: “You gotta discipline your discipline.”
J: “Yeah exactly. It took me years to shake the feeling of not practising, after practising for so long so regularly. Like doing sorta five hours a day up to like, when I finished uni, I had a massive reaction to it and couldn’t do it anymore. But I still had this emptiness feeling, which I used to be able to fill if like I felt that bad I’d go and do twenty minutes practise and it’d be alright. Now I fill that emptiness with alcohol and drrrugs…. Now I don’t need to practise to not feel empty anymore. I’ve taken control of my emptiness.”

Sigh… They’re such dry comedians…

There’s no time for them to feel emptiness anyway. Tour has begun. They’ve been hard at work refining and beefing up their set, and it’s developed a lot since we last saw them. The last few weeks have been spent tweaking, turning, chiselling, tempering, moulding, tightening. Their creativity and its delivery have developed too.

J: “It’s a bit more mature I guess. Bit more direct. More economic. It’s just cleaner. Slicker. Better.”

And they’re more than ready to party after some tough months touring the UK and the US and in a seemingly rare moment, they get genuinely passionate. Do they prefer being on the road over there to here?

J: “No. Over here’s the best. Yeah man, like being on the road here means flying to Melbourne, whereas being on the road over there means driving everywhere.”

K: “Before I had gone overseas I was like, uhh this is fucked, all I want to do is go and see the world. Then you realise when you go overseas that it’s all beautiful places and it’s all different and stuff, but, here’s got such good quality of life and there’s a decent cup of coffee around the corner.”
J&K (spontaneously in unison): “This really is the lucky country.”

Good luck to them, they won’t be able to have a decent sleep for a while! They are touring very hard, they’ve already done Perth, Fremantle and Adelaide, before they return back to Sydney. They’re not going to have many days to relax for the next month.

J: “Generally those days off, you can’t party and go wild and you don’t have the chance to let loose when you’re actually working, you know, cos when you’re performing you gotta keep your head on. And if you have too many wild nights it kills ya when you get 6 shows in a row.”

The waitress reappears with Kim’s ravioli and a bread roll for Jules.

J: “That roll’s good,” Jules scoffs down half of it.
K: “Was almost going to get a garlic bread today.”
M: “Is that all you’re getting?” I ask Jules.
K: “HA. Yeah man. Music business is really paying off!”

They’re two very driven dudes and their pain is starting to pay dividends. Check em out, the Presets’ disco will be rocking out near you within the next few weeks.

Thu 1st Jun – Melbourne, The Prince Hotel
Fri 2nd Jun – Canberra, ANU Refectory
Sat 3rd Jun – Sydney, The Forum
Thu 8th Jun – Newcastle, Cambridge Hotel
Fri 9th Jun – Brisbane, The Tivoli
Sat 10th Jun – Byron Bay, Great Northern Hotel
Sun 11th Jun – We Love Sounds, Sydney